Karachi killings

 The question is why the government has become hostage to criminals and no action is being taken against elements involved in killings? If State agencies are helples and cant arreest criminals then what is the use of their existence.
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Not a day passes when a dozen or so innocent people are not killed in Karachi, mostly on account of preplanned target killing. Though the law enforcing agencies are blamed for their incompetency to control the crime yet, I think it is just beyond them.

The main reason is that the terrorists have the initiative to chose the time, place and the target which is not known to the law enforcement forces, and they cannot be at every place. Each incident comes to them as a total surprise and they can only react to it after it has happened rather than preempt or prevent it before hand. Again 99 percent of the killing is done by the motorcyclists, who after committing the crime disappear weaving their way through the side streets and the bylanes of the thickly populated Karachi city.

Now, it is a common knowledge that there have to be at least two of them on a bike to perform the heinous act. A single person on the motorbike cannot do it. So, wouldn’t it help if the pillion riding is banned in Karachi for good or for as long as required, as it is done on certain special religious occasions and political rallies etc?

I am fully aware of the inconvenience it would cause to the general public, especially the middle class, but would that be more than the loss and agony suffered by the families of the victims who lose their near and dear bread earners for the rest of their lives?

The upsurge in target killings in Karachi with the latest number jumping to 30 on Saturday, — 27 of them shot dead in 24 hours — establishes the city’s image as the epicentre of terrorism, organized crime and now a hunting ground for Taliban as well.

It might be that some of the killings maybe for private reasons or that a part of these could be the result of turf wars amongst mafias, but now there is no doubt that most of the murders are the result of sectarian fighting.

There is no sense in elaborating or analysing as to which side introduced sectarian assassinations; nor is there any wisdom to tell the Sindh federal government or the parties in the coalition running these administrations what to do. If those in government are so devoid of wisdom that they already don\'t know the causes of the violence and the people behind it by now then they do not have the ability to solve this problem that threatens the whole nation.

Nevertheless, this is not the time to recall the past mistakes, nor is it the time to play the blame game as to whose action or rather inaction brought the situation to such a point of near no return.
We can blame the government and the parties in the coalition as much as we want to, however, that is not going to stop the murders or arrest the turmoil in which the city is sinking. Things have come to a point where all those who love their country and have heads over their shoulders are scared and worried as to the country solidarity, without being badly hurt, during the last few months before elections.

Most of the people are clinging to the hope that the general election results would bring a new government, which will, in turn, bring a positive change in the situation. However, most of us forget that when the date of elections is announced there will not be this present government but a caretaker government whose main job will be to hold elections but will be mired in bringing peace in the city. It seems improbable that a caretaker government will bring the law and order situation under control and at the same time make the necessary preparations for elections.

Currently, the law and order maintaining agencies have failed. The political governments in Sindh and Islamabad seem clueless and helpless. Ultimately, the responsibility lies on the people of Karachi to do something to, somehow, decrease the level of violence.

It is for the civic and religious leaders to come together and not just unite but also organize the ordinary people in that city against this twin-headed monsters of government inaction and sectarian violence.
It is not an easy task but somebody has to take charge. The people have to be organised in a way that they are able to recognise, report and if need be to take action against the murderers. It has also to be made sure that religious leaders do not show sectarian feelings in their statements. Ordinary people, of whichever religious leanings, should be given to understand that this sectarian violence in Karachi does not stem out of sectarian bias and intolerance; rather it is used to bring instability in the mega city as well as the whole country. 
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The Lyari joke

 Al Qaeda and Taliban militants have also a significant presence in the city. A number of Al Qaeda militants had been arrested from Karachi. The recent statement of a widow of Osama bin Laden that she lived in Karachi for some time shows that terrorist groups have spread its tentacles in the city. The militants have also shown their muscles by attacking a number of targets including the well-guarded Mehran  base of Pakistan Navy. Taliban have claimed responsibility for several attacks in the city.
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What kind of a cruel joke is this Lyari police operation with the residents of the port city of Karachi and their compatriots at large? It was amid great media hype that the so-called crackdown on the criminals was launched in this part of the city. And the action has veritably turned out to be a spectacular fiasco. Throughout the over a-week-long operation, the targeted criminal gang palpably kept an upper-hand, inflicted numerous fatalities and injuries on the police force, and dispatched it into an ignoble retreat to lick its wounds, splattering in the process the mud all over the face of the Sindh government as well the federal top echelons.
And yet the humiliated officialdom is shamelessly upbeat. The crackdown would continue on a "limited scale", crowed has the interior minister Rehman Malik cockily, as if the operation was originally on a wider scale, whereas right from the outset it was a limited action aimed only at a particular gang, not the entire criminal syndicate based in the area. And the fighting remained confined just to a few streets.
But how comes the police botched up the operation so abysmally? By every indication, it was a blind action that the police had undertaken. It had obviously no firm information about the gang's dens, its dons' lairs, the deadly arsenal it was in possession of, its supply pipelines to replenish its diminishing stocks of weapons and to beef up its fighting manpower constantly. Given this, the debacle of the police raiders was writ large on the wall right from the beginning. So it met its inevitable waterloo with heads down.
But what is intriguing is as to why had the police force been pushed into the den of the gang unprepared for the action it was tasked to accomplish? There indeed are some curious happenings attendant to the whole operation that do not sit easily on the mind. For the first thing, it really beats the mind that while the police raiders were visibly being badly mauled by the gang right in the early stages, why the Rangers were not sent in to reinforce the besieged official raiders? The chief minister kept declaring that the Rangers were on their way to deploy in the area. But they never appeared on the scene. Nor did any police reinforcements arrive to beef up the muscle power of the cornered raiders.

 It appears that those who had tasked the police to this mission had actually had no real heart in the campaign. Indeed, right when the operation was in the thick of it, of all the people the Sindh home minister declared sickness, took a month's leave and made haste to land in Dubai purportedly for a medical check up. More intriguingly, going by the media reports, the police raiders in their operation had the targeted gang's adversaries on board for leads and guidance. What does it says if not that a devious game is in play in this action in this erstwhile stronghold of the PPP where the party statedly stands badly factionalised?
The tongues are indeed waging. Given the fact that criminal gangs nowhere in the world can operate without powerful political patronage and connections, a view is fast gaining in wide currency that this selectiveness in targeting a particular Lyari gang is in effect reflective of the infighting in the local PPP apparatus. In any case, picking up only Lyari, and that too only a part of the sprawling locality, for the anti-criminal operation is in itself quite mystifying, particularly when the entire port city is under the sway of the underworld, with various criminal gangs having parcelled it out between themselves as their closed preserves.
All said and done, this botched-up Lyari operation has raised a host of sizzling questions, suspicions and doubts in the people's minds, which cannot be left unallayed. Someone in the provincial administration has to tell candidly why only a particular gang was targeted in Lyari and all others spared, and why the operation was not extended to other parts of the city to bust the criminals gangs embedded there. And secondly, the people must be told why the police raiders went in action wholly unprepared to accomplish the task and why the Rangers were not deployed when the police was so visibly failing in carrying out the assigned mission.
The people, particularly the residents of Karachi, must insist on getting the answers in the great interest of the restoration of peace and tranquility to the long-troubled port city. The hub of the nation's commerce and trade cannot be allowed to continue remaining hostage to competing political ambitions and rivalries.
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 The Frontier Post

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Karachi Police,Eye on Lyari

 Lyari gangsters showed stiff resistance to security forces operation using rifles, rocket launchers and hand grenades. Exchange of fire continued throughout the day and 11 people were killed in clashes.

Policemen entering the Lyari area for participation in the operation against criminals, here on Saturday

 Violence continues unabated in the trouble-torn Lyari locality of Karachi, as security forces continue their operation against elements described as gangsters. By Saturday evening violence in Lyari had claimed more than fifteen lives in two days, including those of a local PPP leader and the SHO of the Civil Lines police stations. PPP’s Malik Muhammad Khan had been gunned down on Thursday while leading a protest against the conviction of the prime minister by the Supreme Court. Several other people, including at least three police officers, were injured as fierce battles ensued between security personnel and ‘gangsters’ in which heavy weaponry including rockets were used. Also, PPP leader Nabeel Gabol escaped injury after a grenade was lobbed at his convoy on Friday as he was returning from Malik’s funeral. As the violence seems to be spiralling out of control leaving a trail of death and destruction, the security forces and government officials say the operation is succeeding. However, the precise truth behind these statements is difficult to assess at the moment given that Lyari, for now, is a virtually ‘no go’ zone. The situation may prove difficult to douse easily, mainly because the ‘gang war’ situation is further complicated by the involvement of political factors. Various gangs in Lyari are backed by different political parties and, indeed, have been nurtured by them through the years. 

Police personnel in civilian dress taking part in an operation against criminals in Lyari area of Karachi

Lyari area of Karachi gave the look of a war theatre on Friday as strong contingents of Police, Frontier Constabulary and the Crime Investigation Department’s anti terrorists cell launched the search operation in the troubled locality. Heavily armed men posted stiff resistance to well equipped law enforcement personnel who made an attempt to advance into the narrow and deep lanes for search and crackdown on the gangsters.

Horrifying scenes were witnessed as unidentified men threw hand grenades and fired rockets at law enforcement agencies during the operation, injuring policemen and civilians. Criminals atop high rises continued incessant firing using latest weapons. The scenes of fighting shown on TV shocked the people and they are openly questioning where is the writ of the Provincial and Federal Governments. The operation was launched in the PPP strong hold after President Asif Ali Zardari presided over a meeting in Karachi that exclusively discussed the law and order situation in Lyari. The President gave directions to the Chief Minister and the IG Police that law and order in Lyari must be maintained at all costs without fear or favour. Lyari has become a den of criminals and crime zones have cropped up with the passage of time. They have established their strong holds and the common citizens worried about their security are unable to resist them. Arms and narcotics are being smuggled into the lawless Lyari and the gangs are not ready to surrender their areas of influence to the security forces. This situation is damaging the image of Pakistan as a lawless country. Karachi city is already plagued by target killings, kidnapping for ransom and political parties lust for grabbing more and more areas under their influence. Senior PPP leader Nabil Gabol, having strong following in Lyari was also made target by miscreants when his car was attacked but he fortunately escaped unhurt. The business centre of the country has been made hostage by the law breakers and we would urge the political leadership and particularly the Interior Minister to take the situation very seriously and the clean up operation be taken to the logical conclusions otherwise it would go out of control.
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Lyari Gangsters vs Karachi Police

According to SP Nasir Aftab, the police went into the narrow lanes of Lyari around 3am to arrest Rashid Bengali, who is wanted in numerous criminal case, but faced tough resistance from armed men. "The encounter went on for 45 minutes but we failed to arrest Bengali".

 “We will not let them escape this time,” said SSP Aslam Khan, referring to members of the banned Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) who are on the run. “One by one, we’ll get all of them and we will wipe them out!”
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 A Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official and a policeman were among eight killed in latest violence in the Lyari area of Karachi, as gangsters and law enforcers again fought pitched battle on Friday.The gunbattles were still going on in Layari as the report was being filed. Gangsters were targeting both police and general public, as they retaliated to the police operation.The criminal elements were using grenade launchers and other sophisticated weapons against police and Frontier Corps (FC) personnel, who tried to gain access to the congested parts of Lyari; however, Rangers are not taking part in the action.Sindh IGP Mushtaq Shah, City Police Chief Officer DIG Akhtar Hassan Gorchani and Pakistan People Party (PPP) leader Nabeel Gabol reached Lyari to monitor the situation. But gangsters also targeted Gabol near Mira Naka, as they lobbed hand grenades to eliminate the MNA, but he narrowly escaped the attack.Mushtaq Shah told media police were facing tough resistance, but hoped to control the situation by deploying additional contingents of law enforcers.He said the retaliation proved that gangsters were acting in collaboration with outlawed terrorist organisations. Operation was launched in the morning to wipe out the criminal elements from the area, but witnesses said police could not manage to get inside Lyari.Heavy contingents of police had been seen from Ghas Mandi to Cheel Chowk while the remaining neighbourhoods were free for the gangsters. The action was started after the killing of PPP former Naib Nazim Khan Muhammad during a rally organised by the PPP against the Supreme Court verdict.Sources privy to the matter said gangsters were hell-bent to stay in the area because police had planned to resettle Arshad Papu and Ghaffar Zikri gang in Lyari against Baba Ladla group.A cousin of former Naib Nazim, Malik Mushtaq, was killed in Chakiwara when he was going to offer funeral prayer of slain Khan. Gunmen also shot injured Inspector Idrees Bangash, as police tried to intercept them.In Kalakot, a FIA official Ghulam Dastagir, while on his way to home, was gunned down near Lyari Degree College. Asif Usman and Abdul Ghani Baloch were killed in the same area.At Love Lane Bridge, located within the Pak Colony Police Station’s precincts, armed men killed Constable Abdul Hameed when police reached the spot to disperse the residents who were protesting the Lyari operation.Two more people, Fida Hussain and Sohail Shafiq, were killed in Kumaharwara.Police claimed to have killed Naeem Lahoti, a close associate of Baba Ladla with a head money of Rs 0.5 million, during exchange of fire and arrested Shah Jahan Baloch.Following the killing of Lahoti, tension gripped the areas of Afshani Gali, Nawa Lane, Singo Lane, Shah Baigh Lane, Mira Naka, Lee Market and Cheel Chowk, where criminals were resorting indiscriminate fire.Gangsters were also attacking general public to divert the police attention. Grenade attacks in Agrataj Colony and Baghdadi wounded five and two persons respectively. Police claim that they arrested around two dozen gangsters while managed destroyed the dens of Mulla Nisar and Taj Muhammad alias Taju.Hospital sources confirmed the arrival of eight bodies and 25 injured.
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